


just roll with it

by desdemona (LydiaOfNarnia)



Series: scenes from a couch [1]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Accidental Cat Acquisition, Cats, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-19
Updated: 2016-12-19
Packaged: 2018-09-09 21:03:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8911864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LydiaOfNarnia/pseuds/desdemona
Summary: Kuroo's first thought is that he's walked into the wrong apartment. There are five cats, zero explanations, and a suspiciously Kenma-shaped blanket lump on the couch.





	

Kuroo’s first thought is that he’s walked into the wrong apartment.

“Hello,” he remarks, staring down at the butterscotch tabby winding it’s way around his legs. “You definitely aren’t Kenma, are you?”

“He’s not,” replies a voice from the living room. This is strange, and a little alarming, considering when Kuroo’s gaze crosses to the couch, all he sees are four more wriggling cats clambering over what appears to be a lump of blankets. He tilts his head, stepping further into the room, only to be distracted by a whine from the tabby at his feet. Clicking his tongue, he reaches down and hoists the tabby into his arms.

“I get an explanation, right? This isn’t going to be one of those things where I walk out into the hallway, wait five seconds, come back inside and realize it was all some weird hallucination?” The scratchy tongue dragging across his cheek feels real enough, but Kuroo thinks it never hurt to make sure.

“It’s not a dream,” the blanket lump says, cutting his hopes down in their prime. Kuroo sighs, moving forward to tower over the couch. The other cats stare up at him, regarding him with mild interest before returning to their own business once more.

“So. Explanation, then.”

The blanket heaves with a sigh, disrupting a black and white cat who had been considering using it as a bed. “I may have accidentally adopted five cats,” Kenma says, sounding far more dejected than sitting in a pile of kitties should allow. When Kuroo lets out a disbelieving snort, Kenma’s head emerges from the pile of blankets, face scrunched in indignation. “It’s not funny. Kuro, I don’t know what to do.”

“How do you accidentally adopt cats? Five of them? Did you rob the shelter?”

Kuroo had been overjoyed when Kenma announced that he’d signed up to volunteer at the local animal shelter. Kenma has a natural knack for animals (“they’re easier than people,” according to him) and at the time it seemed like the perfect thing for Kenma to devote himself to in his spare time.

Kuroo’s learned since then. Kenma spending much of the day working makes for a very tired, grumpy Kenma when he gets home at the end of the day. Though he only volunteers three days a week, and seems to like it well enough, Kuroo has been surprised by Kenma’s knack for complaining. The food at the shelter is too dry; the beds aren’t warm enough; the animals don’t get enough time to exercise.

So Kuroo really, really hopes there aren’t five cats in their apartment because his boyfriend decided to steal them. Giving them a “better life” will be pretty hard, considering they live in a apartment complex just five minutes away from campus.

“I didn’t take them,” Kenma shoots back, but he sounds too defensive. Kuroo’s palms are beginning to prickle with sweat.

He sits down heavily on the couch, adjusting the cat in his arms. “Okay,” he says. “If the police show up at our door, I know just enough legal jargon to bullshit our way into a warrant. While they’re getting that, we can split. My uncle has a house in Kyoto, and enough money for plane tickets if we really need to flee the country –”

“Kuro,” Kenma says, voice tight with annoyance. Kuroo resists the urge to laugh, instead settling for a smirk as he turns back to his boyfriend. It’s clear that he’s put a lot of thought into their flight from the law, just in case – as Yaku, a law student, has hammered into his head more times than he can count, it never hurts to have a contingency plan.

A grey kitty with striking blue eyes seems to take a liking to Kuroo’s lap, settling down to sleep. It’s hard not to feel like he’s melting inside when being lavished with attention from so many adorable animals. He can’t even bring himself to feel annoyed at the cat hair he’ll undoubtedly have to vacuum out of the sofa later, or Kenma’s painstaking reticence.

“Just tell me,” he urges the head full of messy dark roots which is now all he can see of Kenma. Under the blankets, he hears his boyfriend let out a soft huff; but he does not pull away when Kuroo lays a hand on his head and begins to stroke, much in the way one would a cat. The tabby against Kuroo’s chest lets out an indignant meow, but he coos it into complacency once more. “Kenma…”

“Stop it, Kuro.”

“Kenmaaaa…”

“Stop,” Kenma says again, finally poking out his head to reveal his disgruntled face. Kuroo isn’t sure if he’s being exceptionally annoying today (an achievement, in his books) or if Kenma’s actually irritated with him over something. Even on bad days, he isn’t usually so prickly.

Kuroo decides to try a different approach. “We’re going to have to name them,” he says, voice adopting a gentler tone. It works, at least a bit; Kenma pokes his head further from the blankets. Kuroo cradles the tabby in his arms, considering. “I like Momo, don’t you? It’s got a certain flair to it.”

“That’s so cliche, Kuro,” Kenma says, and Kuroo can hear the laughter in his voice.

  
“I’m a simple guy. And for you, little lady…” He wiggled his fingers in the face of the blue eyed kitty, who gives them an obliging nibble. “How about Aoi?”

Kenma mulls this over. “Aoi works. I like Sora better.”

“Sora can be the white one,” Kuroo retorts, nodding the the white Persian asleep on what he assumes are Kenma’s legs. “She’s got those big blue eyes, same as this one. Hey, you think they’re siblings?”

Kenma shakes his head. One of his hands has strayed from the blankets to stroke the head of the nearest cat, a tiger striped one with a fierce expression. He reminds Kuroo a bit of Yamamoto, and he has to hold back a laugh at the thought of the cat sporting a mohawk.

“They aren’t. I call the one in your lap Sora at the shelter, but I guess it could work for her instead…”

This is all the opening Kuroo needs. He nudges Kenma slightly with his toe, raising an eyebrow. “What about the others? What do you call them?”

Kenma pulls the striped kitty into his lap, holding him up – he proves himself surprisingly docile. “This is Tora,” he says (Kuroo can’t help grinning). “He’s noisy, but he doesn’t fight with anyone. The black and white one is Mii, and she’s nine years old, so she sleeps a lot. The orange one, Momo – she loves to cuddle. I think she likes you for some reason.” (”Hey! Mean!”) “The grey one – Aoi, now – loves to eat dog treats. We don’t know why, and they’re probably bad for her, but they make her happy. Sora is missing a few teeth, so she has trouble eating hard things, meaning she can only have wet food. It’s okay, she doesn’t mind. They all get along really well.”

He finishes this with a great breath, looking up at Kuroo as if he expects his boyfriend to do something. Kuroo has no idea what – he’s comfortable on the couch, and doesn’t feel like getting up any time soon – but Kenma’s irritation has faded away to nervousness, and it’s starting to become clear why. It’s obvious that he is very attached to these five cats.

“Okay,” he says. “That’s cool. So, how come you brought them home?”

Kenma bites his lip, frowning down at the cat in his lap. “The shelter… is running out of space. These five weren’t getting adopted, and they might have had to be sent to a different shelter… I didn’t want them to go.”

Suddenly, everything makes sense. Kuroo feels a flash of relief at the knowledge that Kenma didn’t steal the cats, before it hits him that he doesn’t know that for sure.

“Did you talk to –”

“I filled out the adoption papers,” he says quickly. “I get special privileges as an employee. I understand if you’re mad. I should have talked to you about it, but I didn’t know until today…”

Kuroo shrugs, allowing Momo to trace her sandpaper tongue along the curve of his jaw. “Yeah,” he agrees amiably. “You should have. You could have texted, at least.”

“I know…”

Kenma’s voice is small, and Kuroo can’t help smiling when he turns back to see his boyfriend pouting down at his lap. “We need a lot of stuff, after all. Do they use crates? We don’t have toys, or cat food –”

It’s almost comical the way Kenma’s head shoots up, eyes wide in surprise. Kuroo may as well have told him he was born half-cat himself, for all the shock that reads on Kenma’s face as he stares at his boyfriend.

“You – you’re not mad? You mean, we can keep them?”

Now Kuroo grins, broad and bright. If Kenma thought this would be the weirdest thing to happen to him, he was wrong. Bokuto and Akaashi have an actual owl as a pet, and they adopted him when he flew into their flat and refused to leave. Five cats, Kuroo decides, is nothing.

“We can keep them as long as you take litter box duty.”

Kenma crinkles his nose, but breaks into a tiny, delighted smile that seems to light up the entire room. It’s all Kuroo needs to see to know he’s made the right choice.

Besides, he’s always been a cat lover.

**Author's Note:**

> get u a freak like kuroo


End file.
